I hadn't realised the survival cell was in tact. From the video showing him in the car I thought I could see too much of him for the cell to be there but I assume he must have been already climbing out at that point so was a bit more exposed than normal. The halo definitely did its job, the drivers will be so well drilled on how to climb out that it won't be much problem at all. The issue I can think of would be if the car was upside down and on fire because the halo would limit space to escape then but you have to sacrifice one aspect of safety to gain 5 or 6
You couldn't see it in the main images, after a while there was a shot of them lifting the front of the car with a crane and you can see that the front 2/3 that includes the survival cell is badly burned but fairly intact. Yeah they are very well drilled in getting out in an emergency. It's hard to know what would be the best option in that situation.
I was a bit surprised today that the provision of extinguishers is still rather basic in F1. It's still a man with a hand held fire extinguisher, I'd expect something much more powerful by now and think it will be coming very soon
It does look shocking doesn't it, I wonder if it's about being able to actually get to something quickly rather than looking high tech
Just watched it. Fortunately from the spoiler position of knowing he is basically OK. Just a few broken ribs and minor burns. Someone has calculated the impact was 53G so it’s amazing he was conscious enough to undo his seat belt and climb out. Very impressed with the safety improvements that made this possible. In Senna’s era we would be mourning another death.
We'd be mourning another death if it happened 5 years ago, never mind Senna's era. That halo device is the single most important piece of development single-seater racing has ever developed and will end up saving countless driver's lives.
I have folks in Poole and so when I'm down there visiting them the Wimborne Road track to watch Poole Pirates has always been a must. All of the fatalities I've seen have been there and seeing a rider collide with a cast iron fence is absolutely horrendous. As you say the introduction of air fences has brought about massive improvements . If they had covered the whole perimeter of the track, it might have prevented the terrible accident that ended the career of my favourite Poole rider D'Arcy Ward who was paralysed from the neck down after hitting the fence with his back whilst riding in Poland in 2015.
A miracle escape from a truly frightening crash but it shows that there's still improvement to be made to ensure driver safety. I thought the days of cars bursting into flames on impact were long gone, and safety barriers shouldn't rupture like that.
A colleague of mine put it in a good way this morning “This was a fatal crash, somehow without the fatality. Hopefully they make changes appropriately”
It really is amazing that Grosjean survived with minor injuries only. I haven't really followed F1 for more than a decade (I still try to keep up with the results though), but the work that the engineers and the safety folks do to make the cars safer is important for all of us. Isn't modern science just wonderful? P.S. Hi @Millichente - never knew that you're a member of the bbs!
I believe there is, but they're extremely expensive, so can't be positioned in every part of the the track where as the hand held devices can, and take longer to begin operation, so even if they were ubiquitous, you'd still want the hand held devices available and the first person you'd see on the scene would be a Marshall with a hand held device. I haven't seen any footage that goes on longer than Roman getting out of the car and making his way to the medics so I don't know if the fire was extinguished by hand held devices and therefore the truck wasn't required or if it did turn up and put out the fire.
Best way to imagine it is the survival cell is designed and built entirely separately from the car. That's the starting point, a pod that contains a human being. Then the engineers have to build a car around that pod without compromising its integrity. That's where they all start from. Potentially you could build anything around it: a boat or a plane or a tank or a restaurant. That bits of the care were separated from it wasn't a problem. That the barrier allowed the car through it was and I think that's where F1 will be looking. And maybe at stronger fuel tanks, maybe within their own pod.
It really is - I keep watching the video of Romain chatting away in hospital and it absolutely floors me how much the sport has changed even in the last 5 years. Moi Tomi! I'm a persistent lurker, only occasionally getting involved.